A noticeably heavier Bailey Dale is primed to add to his total of 10 senior games in his second season at the Club, as the third week of preseason 2016 comes to a close at the kennel.

Dale’s slight frame was no obstacle to the 19 year old finding his place at the top level last season, and he is keen to continue to add extra dimensions to his game, and a few kilograms too.

“I’ve put on eight kilos since last year, so for me hitting the gym pretty hard (has been important), and to work on my aerobic capacity so I can cover a bit more ground on the outside.

“I’ve (also) tried to work on my inside craft a little bit as well, just trying to get a little bit more experience in there.”

Dale’s first senior game came against Fremantle in round seven and he managed to join the ‘first game, first goal’ club when he slotted the first of his six goals for the season.  It’s a feeling that he said he could get used to.

“When I kicked that first goal (it) was as loud as I’ve heard any crowd, so that was really good,” he said.

“It’d be nice to kick a few more this year.  It’s really exciting to kick a goal, and I like a little bit of a celebration so it was good of the boys to feed me a few last year.”

There were a lot of firsts for Dale in 2015, but  he said it was hard to top being selected for that first AFL game back in May.

“On Thursday (before the game), Bevo came up to me and said ‘you’re in’. 

“I rang my Mum and Dad just to tell them what’s going on, and they were really excited, especially Dad, and then I rang my uncle Craig after that and he was probably more excited than them.

“The wait until Sunday was pretty long but once you get out there and hear the crowd…”

2015 was a special season for both player and Club and Dale can’t wait to get back out there to see what 2016 brings.

“The boys played really well all year and to get 10 games under my belt was really good for me, and hoping to improve on that this year.”